GOP Joins Early Voting Game

One year after a presidential election in which many Republicans associated absentee voting with fraud, Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin is urging supporters to vote in-person before Election Day. After the first two full weeks of early voting, GOP supporters have narrowed the lopsided, in-person lead that Democrats held at the same point last year. But Democrats still dominate voting by mail. See VPAP's visual for more details.

Share of Early In-Person Votes by Party

(33 Days Before Election Day)

Bar graph showing the percent of Democratic and Republican votes cast early in-person 33 days before Election Day in 2020 and 2021.

Share of Mail Votes by Party

(33 Days Before Election Day)

Bar graph showing the percent of Democratic and Republican votes cast early by mail 33 days before Election Day in 2020 and 2021.

For more details, including early voting by locality, see VPAP's Early Voting Dashboard

Source: Virginia Department of Elections early voter file through the first 14 days of early voting (as of September 30, 2021 and October 1, 2020). Virginia does not require voter registration by party. VPAP drew the expected party ID of early voters from L2 Political, a data firm whose clients include the media and candidates from both political parties.

Oct. 2, 2021